The Best (And Worst) of 2018!

The Best of 2018 isn’t necessarily about the most widely popular movies, television shows, and games, but the ones that left a lasting impression on us as a memorable marker of the past year. There can’t be a best if you don’t have a worst so we included a few of those as well.

The Coen Brothers took to the streaming market with a feature film that is on par with their past artistic endeavours. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is a film that highlights individual vignettes of the west. Despite its name and opening story, the Ballad Of Buster Scruggs is not a musical.

The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs is a breath of fresh creative filmmaking that the Coen’s have become famous for. Every story has its own tempo and theme. The Coens do a wonderful job in making the audience connect with their characters even when dialogue is practically nonexistent. The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs is one of 2018’s best films and one that will go on to be a classic.

Practically perfect in every way still applies when it comes to Disney’s magical Nanny, Mary Poppins. Disney has shown that it is willing to take risks with its classics in re-makes, especially with already live action and a beloved classic tale like Mary Poppins. It was a risk well taken when the result is something as special as Mary Poppins Returns. The music and dance numbers are fun and entertaining and stand apart on its own from the original. Once again the use of traditional 2D animation with live action elements lends to the classic feeling audiences were given with the original. The story takes place 20 years or so after Mary’s first visit and she returns just when she is needed. The costumes, characters, and music are a perfect match for what is sure to be a Disney Classic.

Going into Venom with no expectations wasn’t enough to soften the blow as to what a terrible “anti-hero” movie Venom was. The Venom character himself was done really well, which did raise my hopes slightly, but after the special effects gleam wore off all I was left with was bad acting and a terrible storyline. I wanted to like Venom but it was lacking and forced. The violence left too much implied and felt cheap, the action and story would have felt more complete if it had been shown. Venom should have taken a page from Deadpool and done away with it’s PG-13 goals and gone for the Hard R. Hopefully the next time Venom is redone, the lesson would have been taken to heart.

Best Television Show:

Worst:

When it comes to cooking shows I thought it was pretty hard to get it wrong. Show people cooking unique and awesome meals, or in some cases failing to make a meal, have a charming host, show the food, repeat. Cooking on High somehow manages to have all of the elements of a cooking show, but yet, manages not to show any of it. Cooking on High is so big on the conversation between the host, judges, and cooks it could be a podcast it fails so hard at being a cooking show.

When a game has been so long in the making it runs the risk of being overhyped and not meeting the expectations of the fans. Red Dead Redemption 2 delivered in ways that the most critical of gamers couldn’t deny that the experience was like one that had never existed before. Red Dead Redemption 2 is a western themed sequel to the popular Red Dead Redemption game and picks up before the events of its predecessor.

The acting, modelling, storyline, gameplay, it was all solid. The soundtrack to Red Dead Redemption is one of the best video games of all time and is only getting better with the online mode and future announcements of Downloadable content.

With big titles like Call of Duty and Red Dead Redemption on the heels of its release, Insomniac games had its work cut out for it in tackling a genre that has notoriously been harsh: the video game based on popular established character or movie franchise genre. The last thing the people wanted was another Superman game. Spiderman gladly delivers a fun highly re-playable action adventure where the player really feels like they are the web-slinger themselves. With Spiderman Into the Spiderverse being a surprise cinematic hit, the video game is said to have several easter eggs and future DLC coming.

When Bethesda Studios, the makers of popular hits like Skyrim and Fall Out 4, they had a built-in audience who was eagerly waiting for the game that would defeat RDR2 and the next Call of Duty. Fans couldn’t believe the audacity that Bethesda had in releasing the unfinished game they did with easily spotted re-skinned models from previous games. The blasphemy was so bad that Bethesda had to issue an apology and a promise to make amends for the product that they released into the world. Reddit is still alive with fans complaining about the game and doing their best trying to make their +$60 investment worthwhile.

Authored by: Patrick Henry

Produced: B. Caceres